Some Rules Are Meant to be Broken
by story-angel
Summary: Brian Fenton's not normal. You see, he's a halfa, just like his dad. Now, 10 years after his father's disappearance its up to him to rescue Danny, while keeping his secret, avoiding power hungry ghosts, and just regular teenage drama. OCxOC DFxSM TFxVG.
1. Introduction

Some Rules Are Meant to be Broken

By: story-angel

**Summary: Brian Fenton has never been normal. It was always just little things that could easily be explained to his grandparents, who were...er...slightly oblivious in old age. The pencil didn't fall through his hand, he dropped it! He was a halfa, just like his dad.**

**A/N: ok people, i like to think i'm a pretty good writer, but you all have to understand something. I have a very busy schedule, and i've actually only seen a few Danny Phantom episodes. i know about technus, skulker, vlad, evildan, and some others through reading other fics, but please tell me if i get something wrong. i'll probably be making up my own ghosts a lot, so suggestions would be nice. and if anyone knows a good episode summary site, i'd appreciate it, seeing as this is my first danny phantom fic. feedback is appreciated.**

Chapter 1

Brian sighed as he leaned back from his desk, rubbing his eyes wearily. It was already passed midnight, and he had an algebra test tomorrow...or more like later. Deciding that falling asleep during the test would be worse than not having enough time to study, he got up and crawled into bed.

Brian Fenton lived with his ghost hunting, still rather eccentric grandparents. You see, one day, nine years ago, five year old Brian was playing at the park with his parents, Danny and Sam Fenton, when there was a ghost attack. Completely caught off guard, the three were soon overwhelmed, even with Danny Fenton's ghost half, Danny Phantom. The warden-like ghost, who Brian now knew was called Walker, had come with a small army. While trying to fight them off, Sam sustained the injury that had her in a coma even now. Momentarily distracted, Danny was immobilized and captured.

What they didn't know, was that the reason Sam had been near that tree, with the really heavy, coma-causing branches, was that she was hiding her only son in the brush around the tree, and desperately told him to be quiet and stay there.

Brian's last memories of his parents were seeing them fight for their lives.

After the accident, his father's parents had taken him in, and converted his father's old room to one for him. Brian liked it, seeing as it made him feel closer to his dad somehow. His mother's parents easily had the finances to keep their daughter alive, yet they didn't want to take in the 'filthy spawn of a Fenton'. They never had approved of Sam and Danny's marriage.

Soon after his 13th birthday, though, Brian tripped on one of the numerable objects scattered about his floor, and fell onto a perfectly camoflauged loose floorboard. If he hadn't landed on it, he never would have guessed what was hidden underneath it. It was his father's journal.

Brian hesitated for just a moment, but picked it up and started reading it. Soon, he reached an entry shortly after his dad's fourteenth birthday. He was astounded at what he read. Unfortunately, he didn't get past much after the entry stating that he had learned what happened to him, because one of Grandpa Jack's new inventions accidentally incinerated it. But he did know that his father was the one they called 'Danny Phantom' or 'InvisoBill'.

Brian's fourteenth birthday had been three days ago. Of course, his present from his math teacher was a test, but oh well. However, now he knew what the strange things happening to him were. Sure he couldn't control it, but he knew he was a half-ghost like his dad. It actually gave him a warm tingly feeling that he shared another thing in common with his dad.

But he had to get to sleep - he had a test tomorrow, and if he was late to class he was going to get detention.

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Brian groaned in dismay when three things happened the very _second_ he got up. First, it was seven o'clock. School started at nine. It only took ten minutes to get there. Second, his grandpa was calling for him, rambling about some new project, and third, he had phased through his blankets _again_!

Oh well. Once Brian was awake during daylight hours, it was super hard to return to the wonderful realm of dreams. He might as well hear what his grandpa had to say and get ready for school early. With that in mind he got out of bed, grabbed some clothes and hopped in the shower.

Yawning, he sat down at the table to his grandma's delicious pancakes, quite a sizable pile already in front of Jack Fenton, who, surprisingly, had already conquered such things as cholesterol and blood pressure with the help of modern medicine.

"Guess what Brian! Your grandmother and I are going to re-start an old project of ours! We're going to re-open the ghost portal!" Jack said enthousiastically.

Of course, he was talking about the dusty old metal tunnel-like thing in the basement.

"What do you mean, re-open? I thought it didn't work anymore?" Brian was slightly nervous at that. He had been reading his father's speculations on where the surge of ghosts was coming from in his day, and really wasn't up for taking his dad's place defending the town right now.

"No, no, it still works! It's just that it was very time consuming research, so when you came along we turned it off to take care of you. Not to mention it at least doubles the power bill..."

"The point is, sweetie, that you have to be careful when you and your friends are in the lab from now on. The odd ghost or two might get out." Maddie explained as she gave her grandson the maple syrup. He promptly smothered his pile of pancakes with it, and dug in hungrily. He had a very similar appetite to Jack, Maddie though fondly, yet he had Danny's abnormally perfect metabolism. This thought was common for her at the breakfast table.

"And look at these! Back in the day, whenever a ghost would find it's way out of the portal, we would have to carry around the bulky Fenton Thermoses to trap them and toss'em back in! But now we've solved the main problem - and not that they don't hold hot chocolate - with this!" Jack was excitedly holding up...a pen. Sure, it was silver with strange green cursive writing on it, but it was still a pen.

"Let me guess. The Fenton Pen." Brian said blandly, having picked up on the pattern his grandparents used to naming things a _long_ time ago. So he was then very surprised when grandma answered in the negative.

"It's the Fenton _Ghos_t Pen" Maddie corrected, sitting down with her own stack of pancakes.

"It acts just like a normal pen, but if it detects a ghost anywhere, just press the button and it'll become like a thermos! Watch!" Jack still had that boyish fascination with his inventions, so he didn't notice Brian lose most of the colour in his face.

"Um, actually I promised Lea and Leo I'd meet them early to uh...work on a project for school! So bye!" Brian practically ran to grab his school bag and bolt out the door, once he saw his grandpa appeared not to have heard his first sentence. Luckily he made it, but unfortunately he saw three of the mini-nuisances sticking out the side pocket of his backpack.

Deciding that he might as well call his friends, he pulled out his cell phone and pressed 2 to call Lea Foley's cell phone. His fraternal twin friends were actually very different. Lea's modo was 'early bird catches the ghost' and was always awake at this time (7:45) on a Tuesday. Whereas Leo took more after his father, and woke up at about eight. But you didn't want to be the one around when he did wake up.

"Hello?" Lea's voice rang out from her line.

"Hi Lea, it's Brian."

"Oh Brian you're never gonna guess what happened this morning! You have to come over, ok? We can share stories and prepare for the apocolypse since your up this early."

Brian shook his head at the _really_ old joke between the three of them, about if the boys ever got up early or if she ever slept in it would be the end of the world. "Alright, I'm on my way. I'm going to come via your window, ok? I'm not sure your mom would appreciate me coming at this hour." once she agreed, he hung up and ducked into a deserted alleyway to change. Brian was told he was the spitting image of his father, though it wasn't completely true when he was Brian Phantom (he found it amusing that no one found the correlation between Phantom and Fenton). Basically, the colours on his suit were inverted, and with a BP symbol instead of DP. Brian knew how to control the three basic powers (invisibility, intangibility, and flight) because of his dad's journals.

His friends lived with both of their parents, but their father Tucker Foley more commonly away on a business trip than home, though he came to visit as often as possible. Though they would never mention it, that fact came as a small blessing, because Lea and Leo commonly helped Brian practise his powers. And with Valerie Foley out during the day and on call during the night as a vet, surprisingly, Leo and Lea rarely had trouble sneaking in.

Brian arrived at his friend's window and tapped on the glass. Looking up from some oval-shaped yellow thing, Lea beckoned for him to come in.

"Your grandparents were so excited about the ghost portal that they called everyone who's ever shown even the slightest interest in ghosts to tell them. Including my mom." Lea told him.

You could find out a lot about Lea Foley if you looked around her room. Yellow, being her favourite colour, was the colour of the bedspread, wallpaper, and carpet. She had the latest computer sitting on her desk, and posters showing various charities and snowboarding teams. She also had a small shelf-ful of history and mythological textbooks, for whenever the power went out and the two backup-generators her brother had made didn't work. The shelf was quite dusty. Strangely, she had brown hair even though both her parents had black hair, but her mom said that her mother had brown so it was possible.

Realizing that she had snatched Brian's story from him, she smirked and explained.

Her mother, being the Red Huntress, had been called. After hearing that there were going to be ghosts back in town soon, she took her daughter (being the more er...physically capable of her two children) aside and explained about ghost hunting and gave her some armour of her own. (A/N: anyone who's played Jak II or Jak III, just think of Keira's Jet-Board, except slightly bigger and all yellow)

"How long have you been awake already?" Brian asked her, as she made some adjustments to what he now knew was her own hover-board. Except it was yellow. Of course.

She shrugged. "A couple hours, I guess. This thing has auto-targeting ecto-guns!" but after seeing the look on his face, she added "Don't worry. The first thing I did to it was program it not to hit your ecto-signature."

"Great! Have you tried flying yet?" Brian asked excitedly. In his opinion, flying was one of the best parts of being half-ghost.

"No, I was waiting for you in case I fell. Even though mom says that my armour'll have magnetic boots to keep me on, better safe than sorry!"

"Well, why don't we go right now? Leo's not up yet, and we're both here." Brian reasoned. He had nothing better to do.

"Sounds good. Just let me write a note - you know Leo."

Leo Foley was actually younger than Lea, but only by a few seconds. He wasn't one of those over-protective brothers, but in Lea's opinion (which she had no trouble voicing to him) he worried too much.

With that done, she stood up and pressed a button on a new yellow watch that Brian hadn't noticed. But it automatically changed her baggy yellow t-shirt and regular dark blue jeans to a form-fitting (which made Brian really wonder why she wore baggy clothes), bright gold suit of armour, complete with gloves and mask. Her brown hair stuck out in a ponytail. Sure enough, the hover board stuck to her boots magnetically. It automatically lifted her a foot off the ground. Throwing out her arms to keep her balance, Lea stabilized it as Brian phased them both through the wall.

They both had fun trying to get Lea to be able to go faster than 10km/h and not fall from over balancing or something. Lea actually found it a lot like snowboarding, but she thought of a way to get it even better. Voicing her plan to Brian, they agreed that Leo would be the best to make the adjustments.

With that thought, they flew back to Lea's room while they waited, playing a game of checkers. That was how Leo found them, reasoning that if Lea wasn't at breakfast she must've eaten earlier and was in her room.

Leo was short for his age, the shortest of the group. He was also, according to his mom, a clone of how Tucker was when he was his age, down to even the fashion sense. His favourite PDA stuck out of his pocket, and a laptop was strapped to his back, behind the backpack. Three watches were strapped to his wrist, only one of which had an option for telling time. Actually, Leo and Lea were the same height, but Lea commonly wore shoes that put her up an inch or so.

After they explained the morning's events thus far, Lea explained just what she wanted done to her board. Leo's eyes glittered with the challenge and said he'd have it ready within the week, homework permitting.

Seeing the time, they quickly ran off to school, lest they be late for Lancer's class.


	2. First Signs

**A/N: I'm not really sure about how their high school system goes, so I'm just going to model it off my own. But thanks go to Soulcat56 for telling me where to get some episode summaries, so now i'm going to say that the events of Phantom Planet have never happened here. By the way, the ghost in this chapter is not based on reality, just plain old typical stereotypes with my own twist of craziness. And let's see who can get the double meaning at the end...heehee, Leo's gonna regret saying that!**

**Blanket Disclaimer: (I can't believe I forgot this earlier) I do not own Danny Phantom, I'm just playing with his future life a bit. I'm not getting any profit (other than good-ole' satisfaction) from this. I also don't own any of the movies mentioned in the chapter.**

Chapter 2

Luckily, the three friends made it to school with five minutes to spare. Quickly finding their lockers, which were miraculously next to each other, they grabbed their English books. Brian and Leo managed to avoid the A-list bullies because of Lea, who many boys, football players and geeks alike, adored. They learned last month, however, that shoving her brother and best friend into lockers is not the way to win her heart. But, to both Leo and Brian's consternation, a quarter of the school's male population still felt the need to hit on her. The other three quarters followed around Lisa Santez like lost puppies.

Brian frowned when several offers of book carrying were told to Lea, who ignored them. It had been like this ever since a month ago, shortly after march, because Lea had been on the swimming team, but she quit. She said that it attracted too much unwanted attention. Brian was told he had his mom's common sense, and he had really admired Lea for a long time. But recently, he felt like giving the boys who came near Lea a black eye, a feeling he had soon identified as jealousy and repressed it. Why on Earth would she choose him over any one of the much-more-attractive-than-him boys standing in front of her right now?

Bypassing the boys, as Leo calls it teasingly, the trio made it through the door to Lancer's class just as the bell rang in Casper High. Now, since the school was so low in funding, many of the desks were several years old. Brian had actually found a desk with SM engraved on it in gothic letters, and chose it as SM was most likely his mother's old desk, with her maiden name instead of her married one. Lea and Leo sat down on either side of him.

At ten after ten, they were allowed to leave with a report on the first three chapters of Anne of Green Gables. Lancer had gotten a little more lax on the homework front in the past couple years, apparently. they had five minutes to get to their next class, which for them, was Health Education and Learning Physically, a.k.a HELP. Lea separated from the boys for this class, which was only co-ed for certain lessons. This was not one of them. So they made arrangements to meet at one of the newer outdoor picnic tables for lunch.

At 11:35, the boys came to the table where Lea, mercifully alone, sat, chugging a bottle of water.

"She had us run around the course 3 times, then go straight to an obstacle course with climbing rope involved, then another 3 laps! We got a five minute break then repeat!" Lea gasped. Lea was okay at sports, but she was terrible at running, which annexed many sports for her.

"You're lucky then! We had to" Brian took a break to swallow some water, "jog five laps, then play a basketball game. And Alex and Jake were away today, so we didn't have enough people to switch when one got to tired. Johnston practically murdered us."

"Hey Lea, did you hear? They're having a freshman graduation dance in two weeks!" Brian's cousin Molly told them as she passed.

"That's great! What time?" Lea responded, turning in the bench. Molly said 8, the day after exams finished. They finished the rest of their lunch while working on the report for Lancer, just to get it done.

After lunch, at 12:20, Leo headed to Advanced Computer Programming, while Lea and Brian try to comprehend the labrynth that is math.

Little did they know, that in the computer lab, Leo practically had his own business. The teacher was very lax, and basically let them experiment all day.

The moment he walked in the class, he was bombarded by those who weren't insistent on chasing his sister. They were all asking him questions that had to do with one subject, but he kept his lips sealed and held out his hand.

Grumbling, the thirty-odd students all pulled out their wallets and each put a five dollar bill in his hand.

"That's better. Now, I have three updates. This morning, when I went to see if Lea was awake, Brian was there and they were playing games," no need to tell them it was just checkers, Leo grinned, as the girls squealed, "but they're not together. Also, I noticed Brian glaring at Lea's crowd and clenching his fists. I'm telling you, he was one second away from punching them," no one would mind a_ little_ imbelishing, "and Lea was stealing glances at Brian after she heard about the dance at lunch!" Leo then went to his computer, and as groups of people came up and told him their bets, he input all the necessary information into the special program he had made.

The most bet on topic in the freshman year was when Lea and Brian would finally get their acts together. At first, people were always pestering Leo for the 'insider's opinion', but then Leo made it more organized. he started telling people to meet with him either in computer class, or to call him after school. That was when he thought it would be entirely more profitable to make people pay for the tips, seeing as he just made over 150 bucks. And Lea was wondering where he got his money. His only conditions for giving the tips was that he got paid, and that it never reached the ears of either target.

At twenty to two, Leo met up with Brian for their History class, while Lea was in Music. Nothing really important happened, unless you count a History of Amity assignment. So, at three on the dot, as all the students flowed out of the classrooms, Brian, Lea, and Leo met up at their lockers and Lea dragged them out to the library.

The Amity Public Library was an ancient building. It would have been rebuilt long ago if it weren't for the historical value. It was three stories high, and as you got higher, the books got older. It even had a 1600s addition of Shakespear. It was circular, with most of the roof being a fragile glass sunroof. Of course, that was the old library, it had a more modern attachment to it, where they were headed.

"I mean, why can't we go back to our house and look it up on the internet? It's so much easier!" Leo complained.

"Because you can't trust everything you read on the internet!" Lea argued back.

"But you can't trust everything you read in books, either!"

"No, you can't." Lea agreed, prompting Brian to look up at her in surprise.

"You can't?" "Really?" came from the two boys, wondering if they had finally won the argument, which though Brian rarely actively participated in, he still sided with Leo.

"But you can trust Ms. Carrol to make sure that books with fictional facts are placed in the proper section!" Lea said cheerfully, making the two boys groan in despair.

Since Lea knew her way around the library better than the technological-relying Leo and Brian, they sent her to find some books for their project. While she was away, Brian worked on his report while Leo worked on a programme for Lea's hover board.

"Guys? A little help here!"

Brian looked up, and immediately jumped out of his seat to help Lea carry the twenty-odd books she had come back with, and somehow carried here, seeing as they were all quite large. Brian took the majority of the books from the teetering stack, and brought them to the table.

"Congratulations, Brian Fenton, you are officially the first person to ever carry books for me!" Lea said, really hoping he'd get the hint. But he seems not to have completely outgrown the clueless portion of his life yet, even though it was diminishing, and couldn't take a hint. He just shrugged while Leo laughed and wondered how much he was going to make tomorrow. About half an hour later, Leo put the finishing touches on the program and told Lea that all he had to do now was to install the proper hardware.

The twins were about to separate from their friend, when a large crash came from the other half of the modern half.

"Books, glorious books! My precious..."

Looking surprised and weirded out from the Lord of the Rings quote, the trio looked over to see a thin, blue-skinned, semi-circle glasses wearing, grey haired, and _old_, ghost floating above one of the larger bookshelves in the modern area.

People screamed and ran out of the library trying to avoid the cyclone of books, encyclopedias, and papers. Pretty soon it was completely evacuated.

"I'll bet that she came through the portal." Brian shouted to the twins as they ducked under the table.

"Gee, I _never_ would've guessed!" Lea shouted back sarcastically.

"I'm going after her! I worked hard on that report..." Brian whined, then changed to his ghost self. He phased through the table and flew over the the ghost. Lea was about to press a button on her watch when her brother's voice stopped her.

"Lea don't you even think about going out there! You can't control the hover board yet, you'll be a sitting duck! Is there anything that we can capture her in?"

Meanwhile, Brian had shot one of his still-as-of-yet weak ectoplasmic beams at her, stopping her crusade through the library.

"Stop! Who are you?" he shouted to her.

"Me? I am Histus, Mistress of Books and all Things made of Paper! I shall completely take over this library, and the next, and the next, on my journey to domination of your world! And who are you, puny being, to challenge the great Histus, Mistress of Books and-" her voice was high-pitched and scratchy.

"All things stupid? Sheesh, I just asked your name...by the way, I am Brian Phantom and you just trashed my book report! Prepare to be recycled!" Brian tried to ignore the sniggers of his momentarily distracted friends.

"You really need to work on you witty banter, boy. Maybe read up on the Ghost Child, I heard he had some really good ones, you know."

"Really? Tha- hey, wait! Enough talking, Histus!" with that, he tossed a beam at her, but she dodged.

"Is that the best you can do, Ghost Boy?" and with that, she commanded, for lack of a better word, several heavy books to come flying at him. The first one caught him off guard, and smacked his shoulder rather hard, and gave him a long, albeit shallow, paper cut that sliced the suit. But he started shooting the books before they hit him, and it seemed to be akin to scandalous actions to Histus.

"No! Not the Books!" which gave Brian an idea. The books flying in a cyclone around her were slowly blasted away, and she became weaker and weaker. Finally, one of his steadily-getting-stronger ectoblasts was able to weaken her long enough for the twins, finally with an idea, captured her. Lea had seen one of the Fenton Ghost Pens that Brian had described, sticking out of his backpack.

"Great job Brian!" Lea came over to him, enveloping him in a tight hug and showing off the capped pen.

"Thanks. Glad you figured out the Pen, though." he responded when she quickly let go.

"Actually, the credit for that goes to Leo. He figured that since the Thermos worked by taking the top off, the Pen probably works the same way." she told him.

"Guys, we should leave now, before this is pinned on us." Leo came up behind them. Quickly agreeing, Lea led them to the back door, away from everybody. Just as they left, Maddie and Jack Fenton ran in the building, equipped with various ecto-guns and gadgets, only to find one heck of a lot of papers.

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"Hey guys, when we get to my place, let's watch a movie, okay?" Brian suggested.

"Nope. After we go to your place, we'll go to ours and watch a movie." Lea told them as they walked home, Brian in human form.

"What's the difference?" Brian turned to face the yawning girl.

"Dude, the only movies you have are ones to do with ghosts, and I think we've both had quite enough ghostly adventures for one day." Leo told him.

"Exactly!" then, just to bug the boys, Lea added with a smirk "when we get to our place we can watch a much more relaxing movie like Nine to Five, or The Sound of Music!"

Leo and Brian looked at each other in terror.

"Actually, some ghostly adventures sound great!"


	3. Crazy Names

A/N: I think I forgot to put in the last chapter that Brian's ghost sense went off right before the library ghost appeared, sorry! let's just pretend that they didn't have a chance to speculate. Also, Lea's name is pronounced Lee-ah.

Chapter 3

"We are so lucky Gram and Gramps are investigating at the library." Brian commented as they walked into the lab.

"How do we toss Histus back in the ghost zone?" Lea asked as she twirled the pen in her fingers.

"I don't know. I think they meant for me to give them the pens if we actually did catch any ghosts, not figure it out on our own. Just look around I guess. If all else fails, we'll activate the ghost portal and shove her back in and close it quickly." Brian shrugged.

So, the three poked around a bit, though Brian didn't really touch anything. He didn't fancy geting liquified, killed, shot at, killed, paralyzed, killed, getting sucked into an uncomfortable place, killed, tripping alarms, and there was the possibility he could get killed.

"Hey, I think I found something! This wasn't here a few days ago!" Leo cried out from the left side of the portal. It was a small rectangular block of something, with only three features. A small hole about the diameter of a finger, a small light bulb, and a red button.

Not waiting for the others to agree, Lea stuck the pen in. It was a perfect fit.

"What? As if you guys had a different idea!" she defended when they glared at her.

Leo rolled his eyes and pressed the button. A sound eerily similar to a toilet flush sounded, and then the light bulb glowed green. Brian took the pen out of the hole.

"I guess we get to re-use it now." Brian tossed it up in the air lightly and caught it, then stuck it in his pocket.

"Brian? Are you home sweetie?" called Maddie from the top floor.

Exchanging glances with his friends, they quickly ran to the den and turned on the TV. "Yeah Gram, we're down here!"

"Oh good, we were worried about you! Hi Lea, Leo," Maddie came down, still in full ghost-hunting gear. "Did all of you hear about the attack at the library?"

"That ghost must've heard we were coming, eh Maddie? It got out of there quickly!" Jack called from the kitchen. Maddie rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her face, and chose not to respond. Luckily, it gave Brian the time to think up a plausible story.

"Yeah, we were there. But we left with everyone else, and headed here to find you guys. You were out, so we assumed that you were taking care of the problem and we just sat down to watch a movie." Brian lied.

Lea, whose back was to Maddie, mouthed '_Smooth_'.

"You got that right! That ghost knew it wouldn't stand a chance!" Jack boomed from the top of the stairs, cookies in hand.

"If you three want some sandwiches I can make you some." Maddie offered from where she was tying an apron over her blue jumpsuit.

"That'd be great Mrs. F." Leo responded immediately.

Brian got up and put the disk for Scary Movie VII in the player. Then he turned to see Leo munching on sandwiches that Maddie just brought down, and Lea working on the report that had been ruined by the ghost attack.

"Why are you working on that?" he asked her.

Lea shrugged. "I really don't think Lancer will take the excuse 'a creepy library ghost ate my homework', do you?"

"I suppose...but I'll do it later!" Brian protested, reaching for a sandwich.

"Hey Brian, didn't you have a cut on you shoulder from that book?" Leo spotted, and Brian looked at his cut-free shoulder in surprise.

"Yeah, I did. At least I think I did..." Brian trailed off as he inspected said shoulder closer.

"Maybe you just imagined it or something." Lea looked up from her paper.

"That must be it. Even a shallow cut like that doesn't heal that qui-" Brian was cut off by an uncontrollable shivering and a blue mist escaping his mouth.

"What was that?" Leo asked, looking at his best friend strangely.

"I don't know, but it happened right before Histus appeared."

BANG

"Perhaps it's some kind of ghost sensor?" Lea commented, as they ran to the window to see what was going on.

A giant, ecto-green octopus that took up the width of the street (and several people were car-jammed in the process) was waving around all eight of it's tentacles, some of them holding cars. News crews, surprisingly, were also gathering.

"Kids! Stay here, and don't go outside!" Jack was climbing the stairs as quickly as his 68 years would let him, several ecto-guns and gadgets in his arms.

"We'll be back as soon as we're done with that ghost, okay? There's more sandwiches in the fridge if you want them." Maddie told them as she too climbed the stairs with her Fenton Lightsaber. They left out the door, and Brian immediately changed to ghost form. He went invisible and phased through the wall, to give him the element of surprise. He was gone so fast that he didn't even hear his friend's good luck wishes.

Well, the octopus was certainly bigger up close. It still didn't realize he was there, which is good. Brian was momentarily stunned by the fact that it's three stories high.

The octopus (A/N: I'm going to get tired of writing 'the octopus' and it's gonna get repetitive, so I'm just going to call him Octo for now) turned to face them, because of a completely useless ecto-blast that Jack had fired at him.

"Prepare to be destroyed, ecto-goop!" Jack shouted. He was promptly scooped up by one of the tentacles.

"Let go of my husband, ghost!" Maddie ran forward, avoiding waving tentacles, and took a slice at it's body. Octo roared in anger, as green ectoplasm gushed from the wound. Two tentacles came flying at her, and she had nowhere to run. She joined Jack in being waved around.

But not for long. Brian was angry, so he shot at the tentacle holding Maddie. Octo dropped her in surprise, and then it was a race for Brian to reach her before she went SPLAT on the ground.

Luckily, he was just fast enough, and scooped her up in his arms. She protested and ordered that he put her down, which he was planning to do anyway. He flew over to the reporters, knowing they'd be on her in an instant, therefore keeping her busy. But what he didn't expect was that they'd be on _him_.

"Mr. Ghost, who are you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"How did you die?"

"Uh...in case you guys haven't realized, there's a giant octopus terrorizing the city, so I've got to go now." Brian put Maddie down and quickly left, but not before one question caught his ears.

"Mr. Ghost, do you have any relation to the ghost known as InvisoBill?"

Thinking he might as well humour the man (and because he had heard the horror stories of the press, so he didn't bother to correct his father's name), he answered "Yeah, I do." and sped off.

Charging up ectoplasm in his hands, he karate chopped through the tentacle holding his grandpa and caught him as he fell. Jack was unconscious, and Brian put off his ability to hold him to some ability he didn't know he had. He flew over and rested him on the ground. He turned around and found four tentacles flying at him, from all directions. No chance of escape.

In some futile attempt to defend himself, he threw his arms up and waited. And waited. And waited some more. When he finally looked up, he found himself and his grandpa inside a green dome-thing that was acting as a shield, and the tentacles were beating against it. But it appeared to be weakening quickly.

Taking advantage of his momentary freedom, he flew straight up and through his shield, which just died (pardon the pun). Brian led the tentacles away from the onlookers, and saw that Octo had one large eye instead of two. Stopping for a moment to aim, he had time to shoot an ecto blast at the eye, therefore enraging and blinding the ghost, before an orange car was thrown at him.

It slammed him into the foundation of a nearby office building. Momentarily seeing stars, and with a throbbing feeling on the left side of his face and his left arm. Soon regaining his bearings, though, Brian phased through the car and rubble, and threw a few more ecto-blasts at Octo's eye, then quickly used the Fenton Ghost Pen that was in his pocket. An eerie silence covered the street. Brian saw the reporters start to head his way, and quickly went invisible and intangible. Then he flew back home.

Lea and Leo were still at the window when he came back. Not stopping to say hi, he quickly flew to the lab and practically jammed the pen in the whole and pressed the button. Leo and Lea raced in to see him slump on the ground from exhaustion, and revert to human form. Trying to ignore his injuries, they grabbed his arms and helped him to the sofa in the den, where the News was about to report on the attack.

Before either of them could say anything, Both of the ugly purple bruises on Brian's face and arm glowed green for an instant and then completely disappeared. But then the news cast caught their eyes.

"There was another ghost attack today, and Main street has been temporarily closed for repairs. A giant octopus was reigning havoc on the residents of nearby apartment buildings, having quickly incapacitated ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, both of whom are in their late sixties. But that was until a mystery ghost, bearing a resemblance to legendary Amity ghost InvisoBill, saved the day. We now go to Jim, with that story."

"Thanks Maria. I'm here on Main Street where just moments ago, a giant octopus looked to have gotten the best of ghost hunters Maddie and Jack Fenton, when a young ghost boy came to the rescue. He rescued the ghost hunters, though he sustained injuries in the process" the screen showed shots of him getting thrown into the building, the car on top of him. It then showed him walking through the car, and fighting the ghost, "the ghost boy did answer one of our questions, though, in the small space of time when we had the opportunity to ask them. InvisoBill does appear to be a relation of his, but the ghost, who I think we should call PhasoBill, did not elaborate. We have Jack Maddie Fenton with us to discuss this matter." Maddie responded to the cue.

"Thanks Jim. You see, we have no scientific proof that ghosts can have children, ("Though we can't rule anything out!" Jack interrupted) yes thank you dear, but I believe it is far more likely that PhasoBill is a brother or a cousin of InvisoBill's. Only a very powerful ghost would have the ability to make internal organs and such, though most choose not to because it does in fact make them weaker. PhasoBill is most likely here to investigate InvisoBill's mysterious disappearance 9 years ago, unable to move on until he finds him. We are currently doing everything to find PhasoBill and research the possibility of ghosts having children. Until then, we should warn the public that should they meet PhasoBill to treat him with caution. We don't know if he is bad, or good like InvisoBill claimed to be."

"Is it physically possible for ghosts to be good?" Jim asked, directing the question to Maddie alone.

"No. Ghosts are defined as malevolent spirits who left something behind when they were living, or had unfulfilled desires when they died. They may perform random acts of kindness, like InvisoBill, but only if it has to do with getting what they want." Maddie explained.

"I see. Thank you, Mrs. Fenton. Back to you Maria."

The three friends stared at each other in horror. And all for different reasons.

"Great! Now the press is going to be on your back every time your a ghost!" Lea cried.

"This is just perfect! They think your evil!" Leo yelled. They both turned to Brian when he was silent.

"PhasoBill? _PhasoBill_? _That_'s the best they can come up with?"


	4. Beware the Big Mouth

**A/N: and now, the plot thickens...yes, people, there _is_ actually a plot to this. surprising, isn't it? and to cherryblossom51, I think this chapter will answer your question. And don't worry mazrad, Jack and Maddie will get suspicious, but not for a while. You have to remember, their first encounter with Brian as 'PhasoBill' wasn't under the best circumstances for observation, but I'll try and squeeze something in early for you. keep a watch next chapter, okay?**

Chapter 4 - Beware the Big Mouth

"Hi you two, how was your day?" Valerie asked her two children as they came in the door.

Tucker Foley had regained his crush on the ghost hunter after they met up again at University. Valerie was a vet now, and shortly after she got her first job she and Tucker married. Unfortunately, during a ghost-hunting accident 9 years ago, she can't remain standing for too long. This made her hang up her mask, and she threw herself into her work and family as a result.

"Eventful, and we have a ton of homework so we have to get working, okay?" Lea felt bad about brushing her mother off, but pushed the feelings aside.

Leo took off to work on the hover board, while Lea set up a target and started practise with the small arsenal of weapons that came with her armour. It included: a regular ecto-gun that shot blobs of ecto-goop, an ectoplasm-infused knife, and long blades could come from her elbows and feet making attacks deadly.

One hour and a lot of holes in the wall later, Leo came barging into Lea's room and quickly had to duck an ecto-blast.

"How many times have I told you to _knock_?" Lea said, exasperated.

"Sorry, just thought you'd like to see your new hover board." Leo grumbled, holding out the yellow contraption. Lea's eyes lit up, changed to her armour (which she now called the Yellow Huntress, out of respect for her mother's title), and she grabbed the board. Lea opened her balcony door and climbed on.

It was magnificent! She now had complete control over the board just by thinking it. The neural interface was working brilliantly.

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"Brian? Brian honey, wake up, quickly!"

Brian rolled over groggily and opened one eye to see his grandma gently shaking him awake.

"Dear, did you forget to set your alarm? It's 8:40." Oh crap.

Brian bolted out of bed, ignoring his grandma's chuckles, and jumped in for the quickest shower known to mankind. Then he jumped out, got dressed, and scarfed down a piece of toast, grabbed his backpack and ran out the door shouting goodbyes.

Finally! It was Friday, and Brian had had one bad week. This one, annoying ghost just kept coming back! He called himself the Box Ghost and because of him, Brian had been late for every class this week! Lea had been a help, but she seemed to be ticked at him for some reason. Oh well. He would ask her about it later.

When he arrived in the school, most people were already in their classes. Brian opened his locker and shoved his books in, and just as he was about to grab the books he needed for Lancer's class he was shoved into said locker and locked in. From inside the small space, Brian heard Josh Baxter laughing at him, the rest of the brainless gorillas - oh, sorry, the rest of the Casper High football team - was chuckling too. He heard them running off to class.

Brian turned intangible and invisible and stuck his head out of his locker to see if anyone was there. Most unfortunately, right at that moment he started shivering and his ghost sense went off. Rolling his eyes and guessing who it was, he pulled his head back in the locker and changed to his ghost form, just as the bell rang.

Flying through to the roof of the school, Brian spied the Box Ghost flying over a small factory, obviously relishing in the fact that it seemed to be packaging things in boxes and bubble wrap. He was dancing on a large roll of the stuff, anyway.

"Come on, Boxy, we've done this at least 5 times this week! What do you say we just get you in the Pen and be done with it?"

"I am the Box Ghost! Beware! And my name is not Boxy!"

Brian rolled his eyes and moved his head to the side so that the cardboard box he tossed at him would miss. Sighing, he removed the Pen from his pocket.

"No! Those cylindrical contraptions are worse than the Thermoses!"

Brian stopped short. "You knew my father?"

"If Danny Phantom is your father, then yes! He was quite annoying on my quest of world conquest. Always putting me in those cylindrical prisons. BEWARE! I haven't seen him in a few years though. BEWARE!"

"You mean he's alive?"

"Of course he is! BEWARE! Everyone knows that!" Brian stepped out of the way to avoid another box. Just as he was about to ask where his dad was, a sort of intercom came from the pocket in the Box Ghost's overalls.

"Idiot! I told you to distract him, not give him information! Get back here right now!"

The Box Ghost seemed terrified. "Y-Yes sir, Mr. Skulker sir. I'll be right there, sir" but Brian didn't get a chance to question him further. A swirling green vortex formed behind the ghost, and something reached out and pulled him in.

Brian stared ahead. His dad was alive. Most likely in the ghost zone somewhere, judging on the way the Box Ghost said that everyone knows that yet nobody here knew it.

A loud bell brought him out of his musings. Students in the nearby Casper High all poured into the grounds, meaning it was a fire drill. Quickly locating Lea and Leo, Brian went invisible and intangible and joined them. At least, _he_ knew he joined them.

"Boo." Brian said, smiling when they both jumped. Checking to see that no one was looking, (which they weren't, as a fire drill is an excuse to socialise out of class) he changed back.

"Brian, where have you been?" Leo whispered, while Lea just turned away.

"Box Ghost. What's with her?"

Leo looked at him strangely. "You don't know?" he asked incredulously.

"Know what? What's going on? What did I miss?" Brian asked, upset at being left out of the loop.

"Dude, she was right. You _are_ clueless." Leo just shook his head and walked back in the school with everyone else. Shrugging, Brian followed him.

"So what happened that took you so long?" Lea asked him as they got their HELP things from their lockers.

"I got some nice information from the Bigmouth Box Ghost. I'll tell you at lunch."

The HELP lesson was co-ed today, in badminton doubles. Both Leo and Brian were surprised to find Lea already partnered up with someone, who Leo said was a new kid introduced in English.

His name, apparently, was Aaron Mattingly. He had black hair that hung around his shoulders, and wore black jeans and a dark blue shirt. One could see the back of a gold chain around his neck, but the rest of it was underneath his shirt.

Leo and Brian partnered up, both of whom glaring at Aaron for different reasons, and the tournament began. The only reason Lea and Aaron were winning was because Lea was really good - he seemed to be willing to let her do all the work. Leo and Brian lost early on because they were preoccupied.

After class, Brian, Leo, and Lea (strangely quiet) headed outside to get a table. They ate in relative silence, each contemplating their own problems, but then the silence was shattered.

"Hi Lea. May I sit down?"

"Sure Aaron. You know my brother Leo and my best friend Brian, right?" Lea gestured to her silently angry table mates.

"Yes, we have met." Aaron sat down beside her. A slightly awkward silence ensued.

"So, uh, Aaron," Leo cleared his throat, "how do you like Casper so far?"

"It is wonderful. Everyone I have talked with so far seems very nice." he said this with a not-so-subtle look at Lea, who ducked her head a little and blushed.

"You just have to remember that some people will befriend you, then stab you in the back if your not popular." Brian was glaring at Aaron while saying this.

"I assume your talking about this A-list I keep hearing so much about?" Aaron glared right back.

"Of course." Brian 'agreed'.

"Thank you for the warning, Brian, but I already have it all worked out. _I_ won't be getting stabbed in the back," Aaron now turned to face a curious looking Lea, "May I have a word with you in private, Lea?"

They walked out of sight, much to the boys' annoyance. Leo told Brian that their dad was coming home next week, to see them before their first dance. Leo was really looking forward to getting his dad's opinion on some new cell phone upgrade he was working on. But then, a few minutes before the bell rang, Lea plopped happily into her seat at the table and started eating.

"What's gotten into you?" Leo asked his sister warily as he took a drink.

"Aaron asked me to the dance." she said happily. Leo promptly spit out his drink.

"What?!" Both Brian and Leo yelled. Lea merely raised an eyebrow and continued eating.

"W-Well what did you say?" Leo asked as if his life depended on it.

"I said yes, of course."

"But he's a slimeball!" Brian protested, before realising that this was the _wrong_ move. She glared at him.

"Well maybe if you hadn't spent all of your time glaring at him, you would realise that he is a nice guy and treats me like royalty." Lea argued.

"Well maybe if you hadn't spent all of your time swooning over him, you would realise that the guy is evil!" Brian yelled back, before seeing that all this did was make one angry ghost hunter.

Narrowing her eyes, Lea stood up. "Well if that's how you feel, then I don't know why I waited so long anyway." and stomped away.

Sighing, Brian sat back down. "I said the wrong thing, didn't I?"

"Dude, your lucky she didn't kill you. And you guys just lost me 50 bucks!" Leo complained. Brian's gaze snapped over to him.

"What?" he hissed.

His eyes widened as he heard what he had just said. "Nothing!I'mnotamajorpartoftheFreshman'sSocialGamblingCommittee!I'mnotspyingonyourrelationshipwithLeainordertoprovidebettingtipsforcash!Iwasn'tpartofthehalfthatbetthatyouandLeawouldgotothedancetogetherandImostcertainlydid_not_betasmallamountthatshewouldgowithsomeoneelsebecauseyou'retooclueless!"

"What was that?" Brian asked.

"I'm not spying on your relationship with Lea in order to provide betting tips for cash?"

"No, not that."

"I'm not a major part of the FSGC?"

"No, no, after that, though I'll kill you for the others later."

"I wasn't part of the half that bet that you and Lea would go to the dance together and I most certainly did not bet a small amount that she would go with someone else because you're too clueless?"

"You bet on us! And what do you mean I'm clueless?"

"Sorry dude, Lea swore me to secrecy a month ago! I didn't even tell the FSGC _that_! If I tell you, I'll be number two on Lea's 'To Kill' list, and your number one right now! That's not a position I want to be in!" Leo stood up as well, and waited for his friend to get up too.

"Tell them what? And what am I going to do now! Lea won't want to work with me on ghost hunting, I'll have double the work!"

"Brian, you might want to skip math. She'll still be fuming." Leo advised solemnly. Brian shook his head.

"Nah. I can't, Mr. Falluca's going over the test results today. If I don't pass, I'm grounded."

"Well, good luck. I'm off to face a pack of wolves with bad news." Leo took the hallway to the computer lab.

Brian shook his head and got his books, wondering if he should simply hide Leo's PDA for a day to get him back. On the way to math, he wondered if he should apologise to Lea. That might give him a chance at getting his friend back. But he stepped into the classroom to find Lea sitting beside Aaron at the front of the class, all thoughts of apologising flew from his head, and he instead glared at them both, and instead stomped to the back of the classroom.

"Class, before I hand back your test results, we have a new student whose plane from Mexico City arrived late today, so would we all please give a nice Amity welcome to Hannah Ectora."

All thoughts of Aaron and Lea left his head at the sight of this new girl. Long, wavy black hair fell down to her lower back, and dark brown eyes glinted softly. A red jewel cut in the shape of a heart hung around her neck and reflected the light. She wore a form-fitting pink shirt that showed a curvy figure and bright blue jeans, and held some math books in front of her innocently.

"Why don't you go sit beside Mr. Fenton, Miss Ectora. Mr. Fenton, would you raise your hand please?"

So Hannah sat down in the desk where Lea usually sat, but that didn't occur to Brian.

"Hi, I'm Brian Fenton. Welcome to Amity." he introduced himself.

"Thanks. You already know my name, so there's not much point in telling you, is there?" she joked, a light accent touching her voice.

"So what brings you to Amity?" Brian asked, waiting as Falluca passed the tests back.

"My father got a promotion, so we have moved up here. It was hard leaving my friends back at home, but we plan to keep in contact. I'm just nervous because I don't know anyone here." Hannah shrugged.

"Now that's where your wrong. You know me!" Brian decided he really liked seeing her laugh.

"Say, uh, if you want I could show you around town after school?" he asked, wanting to spend more time with the new girl.

"I'd like that, Brian." she smiled, showing a perfect row of teeth.

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Leo watched as both Brian and Lea left with their dates, and shook his head sadly. He had bet that (while they were in math and he was in Comps) that they would come to their senses before the dance, but Hannah put a whole new number in the equation. And worse yet...

Leo was the only one without a date.


	5. True Colours

**A/N: to ****nightshadow24**** , your ****half right. it is going to wait, but Brian's a little distracted in this chapter. and ****mazrad****, the part at the end is for you! I was originally going to have this later, but ur review earlier convinced me to ****give it a sort of 'tip of the iceberg' thing. Now this chapter's a little longer than the others, so some reviews would be nice. thx to those who did, but his story has 234 hits, and twelve reviews total. Come **_**on**_** people! **

Chapter 5 - True Colours

"So do you want to get an ice-cream or something?" Brian asked Hannah as they entered the food court on their tour of the city.

"That sounds great. How about I get a table, and you get me a chocolate ice cream?" she suggested, and when Brian nodded she went off. Of course, the moment their backs were turned, Brian's ghost sense went off.

Looking around for some sort of cover, he spotted a dusty little alleyway beside the ice cream shop that was around the corner. Ducking into it, he changed then went invisible to find the problem quick. Or, more like the problem found _him_.

Feeling warm breath and some sticky substance on his shoulder, he turned around slowly (so as not to startle whatever it was) and found...oh, it was just a giant ghost-wolf.

Going intangible at the last second as it's claws tried to slice through his form, Brian quickly charged his hand with ectoplasm and punched the overgrown pooch in the jaw, and by the sounds of it, cracking a few teeth in the process. It dazed the dog, and while Brian frantically searched around in his pockets for a Pen, the familiar blue beam shot out and snatched up the wolf, leading back to Lea on her hover board.

Due to her mask he couldn't see if she was happy to see him or not, but she wordlessly tossed the pen to him and sped off. So he took that as a 'not'.

Changing back and stuffing the pen in his pocket, he went to get some ice cream and went back to Hannah.

"What took you so long?" she asked, from her position at a small blue, double-seated table.

"Uh, there was a line." Brian lied, handing her the ice cream.

"Oh. So, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, Brian."

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"Dad!" Lea shouted in glee as said person walked in the door, and ran to hug him.

Tucker Foley stood at just over 6 feet tall, and had finally lost the hat.There was a PDA sticking out of his pocket, a laptop strapped to his shoulder, and his glasses had several buttons on the side for multiple purposes (including sunglasses and laser options). One of his only regrets in life was his inability to spend much time with his family, because the promotion he got 9 years ago put him travelling all around the country constantly to do business deals. But that let him provide a very comfortable life for his family, and he visited them whenever he could.

Tucker grinned and hugged his daughter back, almost stumbling back as his son too barrelled into him. They both started talking a mile a minute, and he could only make out a few words.

"Kids, give your dad a break, he only has one set of ears you know." Valerie came to his rescue. She walked over and hugged him too, but got a kiss in with it.

"It is _so_ good to be home."

"I'll bet it is. Leo, take your father's case upstairs, will you? And Lea, be a dear and get some lemonade. Come on honey, let's go sit down." Valerie guided her husband's tired form over to the sofa. Both kids hurried, knowing the sooner they did their tasks the sooner they could talk to their dad.

Lea came out first with the tray of lemonade and four glasses, and sat beside her father. That left Leo to sit on the armchair across from them, which he soon did so. Then, before Lea had a chance to talk, Leo started talking about the cell phone upgrade he had planned.

"...sub-linking it to the PDA which will theoretically give it highly extended range, and limited access to the Internet-" RING RING, Lea's cell phone was going off, until she flipped it open.

"Hello? Oh hi Aaron! Yeah, he's here." Lea gestured to her family that she'll be a minute, and went off to the kitchen.

"Who's Aaron?" Tucker asked. Valerie was about to answer, but Leo beat her to it.

"Lea's slime ball date to the dance." he answered matter-of-factly.

"What? You mean she's not going with Brian?" Tucker had been hoping on that.

"Nah. They had a fight or something when Lea showed interest in Aaron. It went like this: she accused him of glaring, he accused her of swooning, and she said, quote, 'if that's how you feel, then I don't know why I waited so long anyway'. It was ugly." Leo explained the day's lunch adventure.

"Aw dang. I just lost 50 bucks to Jack!"

"Tucker Foley don't tell me you were betting on our daughter!"

"All right, I won't tell you." Tucker smiled sheepishly. Valerie narrowed her eyes in a really good impersonation of Lea, when that person walked back in the living room.

"Sorry about that, he was just wondering if I'd meet him for lunch tomorrow."

"You said no, right? We're working on that project with Brian tomorrow." Leo reminded, with a significant glance. They were actually going ghost hunting tomorrow, but their parents _really_ didn't need to know that.

"I'm sure you guys can handle it without me."

Tucker and Valerie glanced at each other and both thought the same thing - deja vu.

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Lea and Brian had been at odds for the past week. They just barely made it through the exams, without any moral support from each other. Poor Leo was stuck in the middle, torn between loyalty to his sister or loyalty to his best friend. So he simply declared himself neutral and spent time with his father. Though he still didn't get a date for the dance that night, though.

"Hey Leo, you never did tell me Aaron's last name." Tucker prodded, as he and his son worked on their favourite hobby - upgrading their gadgets. They still had some time before the dance, but Lea had gone to meet Aaron early.

"Oh, uh, Mattingly or something." Leo was putting the finishing touches on his new cell-phone upgrade. Tucker dropped the mini-screwdriver he was holding.

"What!?" Tucker jumped up and started searching for something on his computer. After bypassing several security fields, using several codes and passwords, Leo saw something that he thought would never come up on his father's, his science-is-the-best father's, computer. It was a ghost directory.

"Dad..." Leo asked hesitantly, prompting Tucker to explain.

"I'm correct in assuming that you, Lea, and Brian hunt ghosts, right?" Leo nodded, stunned, "well, I'll tell you that Brian's parents and I used to do the exact same thing and your mother joined us sometimes. Mattingly...we once met a ghost called Dora Mattingly. She was holding a beauty pageant so she could find the best girl for her brother Aragon, but Brian's mother was almost forced to marry Aragon because of it. Notice the similarities between the name Aaron and Aragon?"

Taking this information remarkably well, Leo realised the danger that Lea was in. "How did you beat him?"

"With a little help from Dora." Tucker replied, finally getting to the page he wanted, "Does this look like him?" he asked Leo.

"Yeah, that's him. Just change the hair and clothes. What? He can change into a dragon!" Leo had read ahead on the file that accompanied the picture.

"You know, I think I may just take Mr. Lancer's chaperoning offer." Tucker mumbled.

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Brian nervously adjusted his tie as he waited for Hannah in the gym. Finally he spotted her - looking alive in a pink dress, with that oh-so-familiar red heart necklace hanging from her neck. She smiled and walked over.

"So, um, should we get a table?" he offered, gesturing the the cluttered tables on the far side of the room.

"Sounds good."

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"Long time no see, Mr. Mattingly." Tucker's smile took a double meaning. Aragon's eyes flickered briefly and slightly widened at the sight of him.

"Mr. Foley! _Wonderful_ to see you again. I had no _idea_ that you'd be here!" Aragon's smile looked very forced.

"Dad? Aaron? Do you two know each other?" Lea asked curiously, in a simple yet elegant red dress.

"We met while I was in high school! His older sister Dora needed a babysitter. He was only a year old at the time, still in diapers, and I can't believe he remembers me! I remember one time when that favourite stuffed dragon of his accidentally got it's head cut off. Dora was just cutting up some eggplants and mistook that stuffie for one - you cried for a week!" Leo stared at his father with a new respect for the excellent lie and veiled warning. And he degraded Aragon at the same time! Aragon was red with anger.

Lea's eyes widened in horror as her dad embarrassed the life out of her date. Mumbling something, she dragged Aragon out to the dance floor.

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For a second, just one little second, she was all he could see.

Lea was beautiful in Brian's eyes, with her hair in a fancy to-do with little tendrils framing her face...but then Hannah cleared her throat and his attention was drawn back to her, and the pretty necklace she always wore. It seemed to be the same shade of red as Lea's floor-length dress...

"Brian!" Hannah yelled.

"Huh? What?" Brian asked eloquently.

"You've seemed distracted all evening. Something on your mind?" Hannah was fingering the necklace as she scooped soup into her mouth.

"Um, it's nothing. Just thinking about how, uh, how it seems like yesterday I was walking in here for the first time." Brian lied. Recently, little tidbits of thought had been entering his mind, about how he is never really comfortable talking around Hannah, or how he can lie so easily to her. Not to mention she had a creepy habit of talking to herself. But with another glance at her all such thoughts were pushed from his mind, and she dragged him out to dance.

Soon Hannah left to go to the bathroom, and Brian waited for her by a table. But he never overheard a certain person talking to themselves as they worked on something like Leo did.

-Meanwhile, with Leo-

Leo picked up a cookie from the end of the punch table and sighed in mild content. Things had finally quieted down a bit, twenty minutes before the half-time announcements. He was about to head over to his dad and sister when he overheard something that made his blood run cold and made everything fall into place. Brian's strange behaviour, and his obsession-to-the-point-of-forgoing-ghost-hunting with Hannah.

"Stupid necklace. Why it won't work tonight, I have no clue. His mind is wandering...but it kept him perfectly focused on me before!Unless...maybe...well, it won't work then. Note to self - never trust something bought in the Ghost Zone..."

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"I'm getting a little tired," Lea told her dancing partner, "how about we go get something to eat?"

"No, let's keep dancing."

"But the announcements are going to start soon." Lea tried to pull her hands away. She winced as his grip tightened to iron for a moment, but soon lightened up. But he was still holding her wrist firmly.

"Let's go outside." Aaron told her, and, leaving no time for her to argue, practically dragged her outside.

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Tucker frowned at what Leo just told him. What was this, Night of the Controlling Ghost Freaks?

"We have to get Brian away from Hannah. Maybe we can convince Lea to dance with him..." Tucker started looking around for his daughter, only to be brought back to earth by Leo's exclamation.

"Dad, both she and Aragon are missing!" Leo told him, having asked someone.

Eyes widening in fear, Tucker quietly cursed under his breath. "Some chaperon I am..."

"What do you mean, Dad?"

"Aragon is a control freak. He believes all women are below him, and if Lea tries to make him stop, I don't want to think of what he'll do to her. You go find Brian, we'll need his help, tell him Lea's in trouble. Meet me outside."

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Brian was still waiting on Hannah, idly playing with his food, when Leo came up to him.

"Brian, Lea's in trouble. It's Aaron - that's not his name. His real name is Aragon, and he's an evil ghost out to find a bride. According to Dad he's a control freak, and if Lea doesn't want to do something he'll make her." Leo explained really quick.

Immediately thoughts of Lea flew into his mind. The last time he had seen her...well, she had been dancing with Aaron, then the two went outside. But Lea looked as if she didn't want to. Of course, all Brian heard of Leo's explanation was the first sentence. After that, Brian jumped up, and dragged Leo with him to the door he had seen Lea go out of, explaining what he had seen on the way. It was hard not to let his emotions run away with him and transform, but on some unconscious level he knew he couldn't do that.

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"Stop! Let go of me!" Lea's voice rang out in the night. He just kept pulling her deeper into the brush.

Alright, Lea was ticked. Aaron's iron grip had returned, and was sure to leave a mark. No more Miss Nice Huntress.

Using one of the moves that her mother taught her, Lea stuck her high-heeled shoes in the ground, effectively stopping them, and then she brought her arm in a big circle, twisting his arm, and then her wrist in order to wrench it from his grasp.

Abandoning her shoes, which were still stuck in the ground, Lea twirled around letting momentum carry her, and swung a kick to his jaw. He fell back, and, thinking she had knocked him out, she stepped forward to make sure.

But she was wrong. Aaron jumped up, and got her in a headlock, just as Tucker came around the corner.

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Tucker stopped short as he saw his daughter struggling to escape a headlock. Trying not to panic, he casually stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Let her go Aragon." he ordered. Tucker was really just stalling for time, as Lea had signalled with her eyes that she had an advantage Aragon didn't know about.

Aragon's eyes glowed red, which seemed to stun Lea for a moment. But she was still, slowly so as not to startle her captor, reaching for her ankle.

"Why should I? I've waited so long for the right girl...but last time you and that infernal ghost child spoiled my plans and stole my bride! I will not be ruined again - and Dorathea can't help you this time."

Just then, Leo rounded the corner and looked at the situation in anger. But then he saw Lea reaching for her ankle, and for some reason a twinkle entered his eye.

"You won't win, Aragon. Let her go." Leo ordered.

"Must we go over this again? I've already won! There's nothing you can do." Aragon said mockingly.

"You're right. _We_ can't do anything, but you happen to be holding one pissed off huntress, who _can_ do something." Leo almost laughed at the look on his face.

Lea took her cue. Whipping her ecto-infused dagger out of her ankle holster, she stabbed him in his leg, causing him to cry out and release her. Jumping out of the way, an ecto blast from a tree nearby pushed him to the ground and a very furious Brian Phantom was revealed. Tucker also took his cue, taking his hands out of his pockets and pressing the button on a silver ring that hadn't been there before. The ring expanded to encompass his entire arm, complete with a small arsenal of weapons and a cannon where his hand was (just imagine something a little more than Skulker's arm thing, and silver). Lea caught her watch, thrown to her by Leo (who picked it up off her dresser before he left), and changed, though keeping her distance and not daring to repeat a similar mistake and retrieve her dagger.

"Well well well, looks like the fishes have teeth after all. Too bad I'm in the mood for sushi." Aragon stood up, and a green amulet revealed by him tumbling to the ground started glowing.

"No! Someone get that amulet!" Tucker warned, but it was too late. In a matter of seconds, they had a large, purple bellied, purple-tinged-black wings, black dragon on their hands.

"Lea, the amulet is what makes him strong." Tucker hinted to her.

"Right. I'll go tell Brian- oh, uh, that ghost up there." Tucker chuckled.

"Don't worry Lea, I know. Danny, Brian's dad, was my best friend, and he told Sam (Brian's mom) and I when he had the accident that gave him ghost powers in the first place. We had a feeling they would pass to Brian too." Tucker explained, dodging a jet of fire and blasting back.

Lea shrugged, jumped on her board, and sped up to Brian. She told him that they had to get the amulet, and that a two-pronged attack was probably the best way to go about it. He nodded, still firing ecto-blasts at the dragon's neck, while she swerved over to the other side of the dragon. She armed the activated the hover board's auto-target guns, which came out as two little cannons on either side, and she took her own ecto gun in hand.

The four of them were so caught up in the attack, that they didn't realise something. The people in the gym had seen the tall dragon and were running away, screaming, as the dragon slowly made it's way to the school.

Lea signalled to Brian, and they both flew in, shooting. Being the one with the free hand, Lea reached out to grab the amulet. But it wouldn't come off. The chain would need to be cut. Just then, the tail whipped up, and Lea found herself being flung towards a tree at really high speeds, and wondered vaguely if she would live.

But the thought wasn't needed. She felt someone catch her, in mid air mind you, and then Lea felt a strange tingly feeling. Next thing she knew, she was passing through the tree, and was on the other side. Brian had turned her intangible.

"Thanks." she told him, and he landed, still carrying her bridal style.

"No problem. You ok?" he asked, _still_ carrying her.

"Yeah...um, you can put me down now." Lea inwardly smirked. A light blush appeared over his face, and he immediately put her down. It was then Lea realised that she had been knocked clear off her board, and it was lying behind the dragon. But then something glinting on the dragon's leg caught her eye. It was her dagger.

Brian had already left, and was currently putting a shield around Leo, who looks to have sprained his ankle. But the dragon was barraging his shield with fire, and it wouldn't last that long.

Lea crept up to the dragon as quietly as she could. If she was noticed, it was doubtful she would be able to get out of the way in time, so she rested her hand on the handle of her dagger, poised herself to run, and yanked.

Aragon roared in anger and surprise, and Lea ran like her life depended on it. Which, consequentially, it did. Now, Lea was not the best runner, but she was fast. She just couldn't keep it up for long. But Lea supposed that there must be one heck of a lot of adrenaline in her system, because she made it to the front of the dragon. Now, she had the means to cut the chain, but wished her feet had carried her to the back of the dragon to get her hover board. The jet of fire she had been outrunning was catching up, and she only had a few seconds.

So, she did what had always worked out for her in the past. She closed her eyes, let her mind go blank, and trusted her instincts. A vision of the dart board in her room popped into her mind, and Lea felt her right arm grab her dagger by the blade. Bringing her right arm to her left side, she stepped forward, brought her arm around in a slashing motion across her body, but halfway through let the dagger fly. Suddenly, the vision in her mind turned green, the centre being the amulet. Her eyes snapped open.

The next few seconds seemed to go by in slow motion. Tucker, Leo, Lea, and Brian all watched in amazement as the dagger flew, uninhibited, towards it's goal.

Bulls eye.

The dagger's tip lodged in it's centre, the amulet exploded in a brilliant flash of green light. The dagger fell, clattering to the ground in front of the dragon. Suddenly Aragon stood there in weak form, furious.

"How dare you!" but he didn't get to say much more because Leo (now walking okay) had opened a Pen, and, with Brian getting out of the way, started to suck Aragon up.

"No! I will be back! I will have you Lea, even if it takes another thousand years!"

"Oh get a cat." Brian told him, landing beside Lea, just as Leo capped the Pen.

Lea cautiously walked forward and picked up her dagger. The green stripe down it's centre, signalling ecto-infusion, glowed in the moonlight. Lea turned back to her father and friends, with an astonished look on her face.

"I've _never_ hit the bulls eye before!" she told them, and she, Leo, and Brian promptly burst out laughing.

"Don't relax yet guys. My scanner says that there's still a ghost in the area." Tucker told them.

"That would be me." A soft voice called out from the trees. The ghost floated out, a sad expression on her face.

"_Hannah_?" Brian asked, startled. She sniffed.

"Yes. I'm sorry I led you on, Brian, but I've just been so lonely. Th-this necklace...it detects any small amount of attraction and focuses it, eventually guaranteeing companionship. But it stops working if it becomes apparent that the person's heart is already taken, whether they know it or not. I suppose it also masked your ghost sense but-" she sank to the ground crying. Lea immediately changed back and ran to comfort the poor girl, sinking to the ground beside her and offering a shoulder to cry on. Which she did. Then, she glared at the boys as if it were their fault, and Brian shrugged hopelessly.

Tucker actually helped to calm the ghost down, much to the surprise of everyone (he just told them that he had practise, seeing as they had Valerie crying at the drop of a hat before she had the twins). They agreed that Hannah would have to go back to the ghost zone, and the easiest way to get past Fenton security to the portal would be if she was in the Pen. So she joined Aragon there, and Leo handed Brian the Pen to flush out when he got home. The four of them started to head home, seeing as the gym was abandoned, when Brian asked Lea a question that had been nagging at him.

"Are you going to miss Aragon, Lea?" he asked quietly, so only she and Leo heard.

"Not really. Sure, he treated me like royalty, but now I see the truth that I don't want in that statement. And he was too proper. I mean, come on, my first boyfriend didn't even kiss me!" she responded happily, gesturing wildly with her hands, making Leo and Brian stop in their tracks and stare at her open-mouthed, while she just kept on walking, a smirk on her face.

"Lea, what's that on your wrist?" Leo asked calmly, inwardly fuming.

"Huh?" Lea stopped to inspect her wrist, and her eyes widened at the sight of large, purple bruises, "that happened when he was dragging me. Don't worry!" she told them when Brian's eyes started glowing green, "I-it doesn't hurt, actually."

Brian calmed down, but Tucker really wished they could've done something else to Aragon, when he heard his daughter add (the entire group seemed to have forgotten he was right beside them) added on one little word, meant only for her ears. "Much."

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Brian sighed as he opened his front door, to hear his grandma sigh in relief.

"Oh good, your home! We heard that there was a little trouble at the dance, and that PhasoBill was there! Did you catch a look at him?" she said, and hugged him.

"Don't worry Gram, I'm fine. No, I didn't see him anywhere. But I'm just really tired, I'm going to bed." Of course, he was actually going to phase down to the lab when he got up, but she didn't have to know that. And he did just that. Sighing again as the flushing sound indicated he had been successful, he prepared to phase back up, but was interrupted by his grandpa.

"Oh hi Brian! That's strange, I could have sworn I heard the Drainer going, but I _must've_ been imagining things. After all, you don't catch ghosts yet. Oh! Maddie's making fudge! I can smell it!" Jack turned back around and entered the den, leaving one stunned Brian.

_'Could he know?'_ Brian thought, as he phased into bed. He thought about it for a second more, then, _'Nah.'_


	6. A Nice Family Vacation

**A/N: heehee...if you were in my hometown during the weeks before and after the start of summer vacation, you'd be sorry. one day it was 44 Celsius in my science classroom! We had to move to one of the empty classrooms on the first floor. after all, we couldn't get any work done while fighting over which side of the room gets the fan. (though it didn't matter to me, seeing as I was in the middle. everyone crowded around the fan anyway, so unless you were in the first or second row you don't feel a thing.) oh well, it's cooled down now, but you don't want to hear about the weather! get reading! by the way, this chapter has a serious creepiness warning on it, even i'm creeped out by it, and_ i'm_ writing it!**

Chapter 6 - A Nice Family Vacation

Brian sighed happily as he put the cap on the last ghost to show up that night. So what if he had a deep gash in his side, his healing powers would take care of it momentarily. He felt, rather than saw, Lea land beside him. Her wrist had healed nicely after that incident a few days ago, and they had been hunting ghosts at night together with Leo ever since. It was too hot to do so in the daytime, because they were in the middle of a murderous heat wave.

"Will -huff- you guys -huff- wait up -huff- next time! I -huff- don't have a fancy scooter -huff- and I can't fly -huff- so would you mind -huff- waiting!"

Leo was just complaining because the cheetah ghost they had just caught gave them a bit of a chase. Lea rolled her eyes and took off her mask. It may be nighttime, but it was still hot.

"Why don't you make yourself something to fly on, then!" Lea told him.

"Must I remind you that I'm afraid of heights?" he bit back. They were all a bit sleep deprived, staying up until 3am every night. And then they had to worry about sneaking back in! It actually wasn't that hard. Brian just phased in and out of his window, and Lea used her balcony. But Leo insisted on getting in through the ground floor somehow (namely the front door), and has almost gotten caught by his mother several times because of it.

"Guys, if you keep arguing like this, how are you going to manage without me?" Brian asked.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. You just go and say hi to Jaimie for me, okay?" Lea told him, referring to his youngest cousin.

"Yeah, go off to your Aunt and leave us here to deal with the thousands of ghosts." Leo clapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh come on. The portal will be closed while he's gone, we'll probably only have the odd ghost." Lea argued.

"That's the odd ghost too many! And are you sure you shouldn't get that looked at, Brian?" Leo suddenly peered at his best friend's injury.

"It'll be gone by sunrise." Brian couldn't really say morning, because it was 2am.

"Call us if anything happens!" Lea shouted to him later as the twins sneaked back inside.

-Flashback to that morning-

Brian woke up and groaned in annoyance. He had phased through the light blanket for summers again! He got up anyway, and took a quick shower before going downstairs for breakfast. He came down to hear a phone conversation between grandma and someone else.

"...yes, that'll be lovely. I'm sure he'll love to come, we all will! Only Jaimie? That's too bad, I've missed Steven, Molly, David, and Ron. Yes, we'll leave first thing tomorrow, the sooner we get farther north the better! The heat's unbearable here. Alright, see you tomorrow. Bye honey." Maddie hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Brian asked, wanting to know what he had been signed up for.

"That was your Aunt Jazz. She's invited us all up to the cabin tomorrow, isn't that nice of her?" Maddie passed him the milk, which he poured on his until then dry cereal.

"What?! Oh, please don't make me go, please."

'Why not? They have a river up there, you'll be able to swim and cool off. Steven and Molly are off at some convention, David's at camp, and Ron will be visiting with a friend for a few days. It'll be just you and Jaimie."

"And there's even a circus in town! I'll bet that they have cotton candy!" Jack put in.

Of course, Maddie had been referring to Jazz's four kids, Molly, David, Ron, and Jaimie. Molly was the oldest, already scouting out colleges, David was 16, and Ron was a few years younger than Brian. Jaimie was five, and simply adored Brian, and he adored her as well. Be it a bedtime story, a piggyback ride, whatever, all Jaimie had to do was ask Brian. Jazz had met Steven in her first year of college, and they fell in love immediately. Jazz ran a home business - phsyciatric advice over the Internet.

"But Aunt Jazz looks at me strange! It's as if I'm going to explode any minute and she's just wondering when!" Brian argued.

"Oh I'm sure your imagining things dear. Now go up and pack, we'll be there for three days, and we're leaving tomorrow morning, first thing! It's a three hour drive, you know."

Even better. Three hours of his grandfather's driving.

-End flashback-

So that's how Brian found himself in the slightly rusted Fenton RV, and he would be asleep, if not for his grandfather's driving habits and worrying about crashing every second. Brian thought he did eventually fall asleep, because one second he was wondering when Gramps would get a speeding ticket, and the next he was gazing out the window into his Aunt's cabin.

It was a very nice place. The house sat in the middle of a clearing, with about 15m on each side of the house before the trees started back up again. Behind the house, just past a thin layer of trees, a pleasant river gurgled. After a ten minute's walk down a nearby path, and you come to a town, where the circus was being held. The cabin itself had a peaceful atmosphere, even though it was nothing like that when it was full. It had five bedrooms - one for Jazz and Steven, and then one for each of the kids. Brian, Maddie and Jack usually visited once or twice a year.

Brian wearily stepped out of the car, and dragged his small suitcase out with him. Just as he stood up straight, case on the ground-

"Bwian!"

The five year old barrelled into him, but he didn't mind, because it was his adorable cousin. She had Jazz's red hair, yet had ice blue eyes like Brian's and, from what he had heard, Danny's. A smattering of freckles crossed her face, and looked every bit the excited child. Brian knelt down to be eye-level with her.

"Hey squirt! How's my favourite cousin?"

"I'm your fav-o-wit cousin, Bwian?" she asked, eyes wide. Jaimie had a little difficulty pronouncing things, but her teacher said she should grow out of it.

"Yeah, but it's a secret, okay? Don't tell anyone." Brian put his finger to his lips and smiled as she giggled and nodded. Then she ran over to his suitcase and tried to pull. Brian laughed.

"Come on Bwian! I wanna go swimming!" she ordered, still vainly trying to pull Brian's suitcase into the house. With her still hanging onto the handle, he easily lifted it up and she shrieked in surprise. Nonchalantly swinging his suitcase onto his back (but making sure she was on the outside) Brian walked up the steps to his Aunt's house, where she, Maddie, and Jack were waiting. Of course, he wouldn't have had a chance of carrying both of them in one arm last year, but that's what ghost hunting every night does to you.

"Hi Brian." Jazz greeted, giving a hug in the process.

"Hi Aunt Jazz. Listen, have you seen Jaimie around anywhere? She was right here a minute ago..." giggling interrupted him.

"I'm back here Bwian!"

Brian pretended to look around in surprise. Turning around completely, showing the rest of the family that Jaimie was hanging firmly onto the suitcase at the back, (sending them all in chuckles), he said, "Where? I don't see you."

"Back here silly! You lifted me up, renenber?" Jazz stopped laughing.

Startling her, Brian brought the suitcase forward, still in one arm, with Jaimie still hanging on to it.

"That's enough. She'll be too hyper to eat lunch if you keep this up." Jazz told him, not meaning to sound strict, but half in her own world of thought.

Brian sighed, but knew she was right. He put his suitcase, and Jaimie, on the ground and knelt down again. "Your mom says we have to stop playing. So go get ready for lunch, okay squirt?" still giggling, she nodded and ran off.

"Are we going to the circus after lunch?" Jack asked excitedly, practically mirroring Jaimie's attitude.

"Yes, dad, but your not having any cotton candy-" Jazz started.

"Until you've had a good lunch." Maddie finished. The two women promptly burst out laughing, and went inside to the kitchen, Jack following meekly behind them. That left Brian with the three suitcases. Struggling a bit, he picked up his parents' suitcases, though grandpa's suitcase seemed to be mostly machinery.

"Aunt Jazz, what are the sleeping arrangements?" he called out.

"Mom and Dad are in Molly's room, and you're in Ron's. David's is being painted." Jazz called back out. Brian deposited the suitcases in the proper rooms, and collected Jaimie from the bathroom (washing her hands) and the two went downstairs to the kitchen. Through the meal, Brian caught Jazz giving him that strange stare twice, but decided to ignore it.

After lunch, the five of them walked down the path to the circus, with Jaimie hitching a ride on Brian's back, piggyback style. Not only did this make Jaimie happy, but it caused the teenage female population of the town to appreciate Brian's excellence with kids. They entered the tent, and got Jack and Jaimie some cotton candy (with Jack's being twice the size of Jaimie's). After that, the quintet quickly found their seats, around the middle.

The performances mainly consisted of animals, like people standing on horses, and some kids from the audience (Jaimie included, much to her delight) got the chance to ride on an elephant. One performance that none of them liked, was when a bunch of clowns came into the audience and honked horns in people's faces. Brian overheard Jack asking Maddie if he could use his ecto-gun on one of the clowns, because they may be possessed by ghosts. Brian was inclined to agree with his grandpa on this one.

Afterwards, there were a few games for people to play at, and Jaimie had Brian win her a large stuffed clown, by taking a water gun and shooting the targets. It was a bit like his ecto-blasts, which made his aim not bad at all. It did take some work, but Brian didn't mind, he just smiled at the girls that went 'aw' when they passed.

But on the path back home, when the sun was setting, Jack offered to hold a tired Jaimie, and hoisted her up on his shoulders. Brian was grateful, as his back was quite sore. No amount of ghost hunting will prepare you for a squirming-in-excitement five year old on your back for the majority of the day.

After Jazz had tucked Jaimie in, she came back downstairs and the four of them talked for a bit.

"Oh, Brian, I've been meaning to ask, are you as clueless as Danny was, or have you finally asked Lea out?" Jazz teased, grinning when a tinge of red appeared on Brian's cheeks.

"I'm not clueless!" Brian shouted

"He's completely clueless." Maddie told her, and the two women giggled.

"And I'm not interested in Lea in that way!"

"They're dancing around each other like Danny and Sam used to." Maddie and Jazz started laughing.

Brian flushed and all of a sudden felt himself sinking into the sofa. Panicking, he barely managed to get back to normal before Jazz looked up, and looked at him strangely for a moment. But they were soon quite distracted. And lucky for Brian, too, seeing as his ghost sense just went off. But even he was more focused on other matters. Jaimie's piercing scream echoed through the house.

For a second, they were all too stunned to move. Then, with Jazz in the lead and Brian in the back, they all stampeded up the stairs to Jaimie's room. Throwing the door open, they saw Jaimie clutching her blankets in fear and shaking, staring at the door to her closet, which was ajar.

Jazz quickly took her daughter in her arms. "What's the matter sweetie? Did you have a bad dream?"

"Mommy! It was tewible...I-I woke up thirsty and was gonna get up, but i-it grabbed my weg and stawted to pull me to the closet, which was gwowing. I scweamed and it let go an' ran 'way into the closet." Jaimie explained, crying a little, and clutching to her mother for dear life.

Brian turned to the closet. With Jaimie's screams of caution ("Be careful Bwian!")ringing in his ears, he opened the closet door. All that was there were clothes and the stuffed clown Brian had won for Jaimie. But she just burrowed deeper into her mother's embrace when she saw the clown.

Noticing this, Jazz gave her own parents a she's-just-had-a-bad-dream-that's-all look. "You want to come in with me tonight sweetie? The bad dreams will go away."

"It wasn't a dream!" Jaimie yelled, before realising she had pronounced dream right.

"Come on honey, let's go to bed." Jazz stood and lifted Jaimie with her.

Maddie sighed. "Well, we might as well go to bed now, too."

So, with limited grumbling, they all went to bed. But that doesn't necessarily mean they slept - no, Brian was having trouble sleeping, not only because there was a ghost in the area, but because he was used to getting to sleep at 2 or 3 am. Not 9 pm.

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The next day, Brian woke up shivering at the crack of dawn. The familiar blue mist rose from his mouth, and he heard Jaimie scream. He heard his parents jump out of bed in the next room, and knew then that he couldn't transform. So instead he jumped out of bed and followed his parents to Jazz's room instead.

Jaimie was crying in Jazz's shoulder when they arrived. Jaimie told them it was the same as last night, only this time the clown told her that nobody could help her because nobody believes her.

Later on, before lunch, when Jaimie was dragging Brian and her mother out to the river to play, she took Brian aside for a moment.

"You beweeve me, don't you Bwian?" she asked, pulling him down to eye level with her. Brian smiled.

"Yeah, I believe you. And don't worry, I'll protect you. Just whatever you do, don't go with the clown. Okay?" he told her, and she smiled and hugged him. Then she went off with her mom, armed with floaties. Brian shook his head in amusement and changed to swimming trunks to go join them.

"Brian, is that a scar?" Jazz asked him as they played in the shallow water with Jaimie

He froze and looked down at the place on his ribs where the cheetah had clawed him the other day. Sure enough, there were thick white lines running where the injury had been. Aw crap.

"Oh, uh, that was a while ago. Just a friend's cat that didn't really like me." he lied, but it was flimsy. She nodded but gave him a look that said plainly 'yeah right'.

"You know, your dad was quite the ghost hunter at your age." Jazz said nonchalantly, as Jaimie splashed around nearby.

"Really?" Brian asked cautiously.

"Yes. But his methods were unorthodox, at least according to mom and dad. That's why he did it in secret. I probably wouldn't even know if it weren't for the fact that I caught him at it. We sorted some things out, and eventually I started covering for him whenever he had to uh, 'leave unexpectedly.'"

"Is that right?" So, his dad had other human allies than Mr. Foley.

"Yeah. I was also able to help get him away from some of dad's inventions. They all seem to malfunction, and eventually target, around him. Strange, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm sure that if, by some strange coincidence, I were in his position, I would appreciate it." Brian realised what she was trying to say - she just couldn't say it right out, what with Jaimie now looking at them strangely.

"I would do it for either of you." ended the conversation, a new understanding between Brian and his Aunt. Brian decided to end the silence by splashing Jaimie, which ended up in an all-out splash war - Jazz and Brian versus Jaimie.

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"So, how did you figure it out?" Brian asked her. Jaimie had fallen asleep soon after coming in, so Brian had taken her to her room and tucked her in. Jack and Maddie were in the town, buying souvenirs, so it was just them.

"Well, we had always suspected that you might have the same abilities as Danny. And then, you were acting different this summer. You were able to lift Jaimie and your luggage in one hand easily by the looks of it, yet mom never mentioned you working out at all. And mom mentioned you seeming distracted during your last bit of classes, but don't worry - she just thought it was the pressure of the first year ending. Also, I managed to catch a glimpse of you making yourself tangible while mom and I were teasing you. But the scar gave it away. No ordinary house cat could've done that. What kind of cat did that anyway?" Jazz explained, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Cheetah." Brian answered simply.

Jazz nodded. "So you got stuck with PhasoBill, huh? Well, at least they're following a pattern. Danny got stuck with InvisoBill." Brian groaned in dismay.

"Let's _not_ get onto that subject. It's just a little less stupid than calling the Box Ghost something insane like Crate Creep..." Jazz frowned at him and was about to comment when Jaimie's scream vibrated through the house. At the same time, Brian shivered and the usual blue mist escaped from his mouth.

Without a word, Brian and Jazz ran up the stairs (with Jazz a little behind) to find Jaimie under her blankets, her closet open. The stuffed clown was staring ahead, a large smile on it's face. Both of them headed over to Jaimie. Since she couldn't see them, she shrieked when two unidentified people sat on the edge of her bed.

"It's okay sweetie, it's mommy and Brian. Did you have another bad dream?" Jazz asked, and Jaimie's head poked out from under the covers. But she didn't leave them, and she took a cautious look at the clown.

Brian, noticing this, said "How about I get rid of the doll? Would that make you feel better?" when Jaimie nodded meekly, he got up. But Jaimie grabbed his arm.

"You still beweeve me, don't you Bwian?" she asked quietly. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair a bit.

"Yeah, I still believe you squirt, don't worry." he said, and went over to the closet.

He had to admit, as he picked up the clown, he was pretty creepy. The thing seemed almost to stare at him as he was carried down to the garbage cans outside the back kitchen door.

The reason he believed Jaimie was simple. Every time Jaimie had screamed, his ghost sense went off at the same time. Jaimie was usually groggy for a few seconds right after she woke up, and probably wouldn't notice anything. Therefore, every time she had screamed, she must've been awake. And it might be possessing the clown doll if it was too weak to keep a solid form. By 'it' of course, he meant whatever ghost was setting his ghost sense off.

He stayed outside for a few minutes, just to appreciate the scenery, but was brought back into the kitchen by yelling.

"No dad, I will not have one in the house!" Jazz's voice echoed through the house. Brian found Jaimie sitting quietly (which was strange for her) at the kitchen table, a glass of milk in front of her. Maddie was eating a sandwich across from her, and Jazz and Jack were standing at opposite ends of the table.

"But if it really is a ghost, then what better than the Fenton Search and Destroy! No ghost has a chance against it!" Jack argued. Gulping, Brian looked to his grandmother for an explanation.

"We just got in. Jazz mentioned that Jaimie had another nightmare, and was worried ghosts might have something to do with it. So Jack suggested several ghost hunting devices, but Jazz doesn't want them. It quickly escalated to this." Maddie caught him up to recent events, while taking a bite of her sandwich.

"But what if one of the devices malfunctions, and hurts Jaimie! I'm telling you dad, if I find any ghost hunting equipment in this house, I'll know who to come to." Jazz then stomped out of the kitchen. Brian sighed and silently thanked her, before sitting down next to Jaimie. Without any prompting, she started talking to him in a low voice, almost as if she were trying to hide it from the adults.

"He said that I can't escape him. He said that he'll fowwow me. He said tha-that if I told anywon he'd," Brian bent forward to hear it, "he'd kill me."

He hugged her. Maddie looked at them curiously, but Brian ignored it. "Don't worry. I'll protect you. Just stay with me, okay squirt? We'll even have a little sleepover in my room tonight." he finally got her to smile. Jazz walked back in, a worried expression on her face

"Mom, Dad, we have trouble. The kids in town...they've started disappearing. They've asked all the adults to start searching. Brian, please stay here with Jaimie," Brian nodded, easily getting the hidden message. She wanted him to protect her youngest daughter. "Every child under 8 is missing. We're having a quick meeting in the town hall to assign search parties. Let's go."

Jaimie grabbed Brian's hand as they went to say bye. Jazz hugged her, then Brian, whispering "Please look after her. My cell phone number is on the fridge if you need me."

He whispered back, "I won't let her out of my sight." and with that they were gone. Jaimie looked at him curiously.

"What do we do now Bwian?" she asked, still gripping his hand.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

"Movie! I wanna watch a movie!" she told him, let go of his hand and ran into the living room, Brian on her heels. By some strange coincidence, they ended up watching the remake of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Brian made a mental note to make his grandparents watch this movie.

"Do you beweeve in nice ghosts, Bwian?" she asked him when the movie was done and she was fishing around for another.

"Yep. In fact, I know a very friendly ghost that will come if we get any trouble while the grown-ups are out." Brian inwardly grinned at the look of amazement on her face.

"Weally? What's his name?"

"Uh...actually, it's Brian Phantom."

"Oh, so your the ghost." Brian was too stunned so he just nodded. Luckily, her five year old mind didn't need any explanations.

"Yeah, but it's a secret, okay? Don't tell anyone." He put his finger to his lips just like he did before, and she smiled and signalled back.

After that, they watched Sleeping Beauty. Jaimie thought he was actually into it, but he just wanted to see the Aragon look-a-like get killed at the end.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Brian and Jaimie spent the day together, watching movies, swimming, playing games, and Brian ordering take-out because he didn't want to burn the house down. But it was getting late, at least for Jaimie anyway, and the sun had already gone down. Jazz had called to tell him that the search would likely go on all night and into the morning, but not to worry about them. With that, though, she had called a total of twelve times, the other eleven to check up on Jaimie. Talk about a worrywart.

Brian was just reading a story to her, when she fell asleep. Smiling and tucking her in, he sat in the chair and waited. He had no intention of going to sleep tonight, but rather staying up to watch over her. The phone, which he had been expecting to go off at any minute, rung and he quickly answered it.

"Yes Aunt Jazz, we're both here. She's sleeping at the moment. Yes, I'm right here with her. No, she's still sound asleep. Don't worry, I'm going to stay up tonight and watch over her. Yes, I'll be fine, I usually get to sleep at 3 am anyway. I've had extra last night, so I should be able to stay up easily. Aunt Jazz, your calling every half hour anyway. If we don't answer one time, then you'll know we're in trouble. All right, talk to you in half an hour. Bye."

Brian put down his hand-held video game and looked at the clock, many of Jazz's calls later. 1:39. He hated having to leave Jaimie alone, but he _really_ had to go to the bathroom. Oh well, he wouldn't be but a minute.

But, much to his horror, when he got back to Jaimie's room, the door (which he had closed) was open. Jaimie was awake, and staring, to terrified to scream, at the clown doll that sat in Brian's chair in her room. The clown grinned, showing pointed teeth, and slowly turned to face him.

"Huh-huh. So, your the oldest believer. Much to bad, much too bad. I was hoping to get the last child without any resistance. She has already proved to be quite loud as it is...oh well, I'll just dispose of both of you. Heehee." the clown then shot an ectoblast, much to Brian's surprise, out of it's nose. Brian threw a shield up in front of Jaimie and himself, and transformed while he was at it. The blast hit the shield harmlessly.

"Oh, so your the new halfa? Hahaha. Looks like we'll have a little fun. Run while you still can, Ghost Boy, for I am far to powerful for you. I have the fear of fifty kids on my side, and fear is the most powerful emotion!" the ghost bragged, but then the clown slumped down, motionless. Instead, another clown materialised, taller than the last one and with red eyes. He was wearing a blue and yellow polka dotted baggy jumpsuit, with white gloves and an evil grin.

Frowning, Brian fired an ectoblast at him, but he dodged and a burn mark appeared in Jaimie's closet door. Laughing, the ghost flew through the roof. Quickly turning to Jaimie, Brian knelt down so he was eye level with his cousin.

"I want you to stay here squirt. And remember, _do not go with the clown_. No matter what happens, don't go with him. And be brave, Jaimie. Don't be afraid, or he wins. Can you do that for me?" he asked her, holding her at arms length.

"Yes." Jaimie nodded, having never seen her cousin this serious before. He smiled and pulled her into a hug, and then grabbed something he had placed on her dresser earlier, before he went after the clown.

He was hovering near the trees surrounding the house.

"So, what's your name, big nose?" Brian asked, while dodging a rather large polka-dotted ball.

"Why, that would be Bojo, heehee! And after I dispose of you, no one will be able to oppose me! Adults and most teenagers find it physically impossible to believe that a clown can cause this much fear and destruction! They all believe that clowns are all cheerful and the funniest creatures on earth!" Bojo grinned maliciously and took out a long, thin, red, knife.

"Well, you see, that was true, but I think you've set a world record for evilest clown. Let's call Guinness!" Brian suggested jokingly, while charging up his hand and punching Bojo in the nose. Which honked. Then, it gave him an electric shock.

"Oh you've _got_ to be kidding me!" Brian said after he was released, turning intangible for the knife to pass through.

"Heehee. 'Fraid not, I haven't kidded anyone since I was boo'ed off the stage all those years ago! I lost my job and got drunk. Then, a car plowed into me! I promised I would get those kids back...and now I have! The people with the missing kids are the generation that killed me! Hahaaa!" Bojo appeared to be insane. He turned and fled towards the town. Chasing after him, and throwing the odd ectoblast, Brian struggled to keep up. It was like the closer he got to town, the better he became. And then it came to him.

'_I have the fear of fifty kids on my side, and fear is the most powerful emotion!'_ of course! The kids must be in town somewhere, scared, and the closer Bojo got to them the stronger he got. So, to get him away from them, Brian tried something childish.

"Hey Bojerk! Catch me if you can, peabrain!" Brian turned and sped in the other way. He looked over his shoulder to see Bojo charging up an ecto blast, but chasing after him, and Brian dodged the hit. They quickly passed Jazz's house, though Bojo didn't seem to pick up any extra power. That meant that Jaimie wasn't afraid anymore.

The farther Brian led him, the weaker Bojo became. But he was too blinded by the chance to outlet all his anger that he kept going, for kilometers and kilometers. Soon, Bojo could barely keep himself in the air. In one last pathetic effort, he threw the knife and gave Brian a scrape. Oh wow.

As Bojo stood hunched over, trying to recover his strength, Brian had no trouble taking out the Pen and capturing him.

Sighing, he sped back to the house (which took a few minutes) and entered Jaimie's room to find it empty. The phone was also gone. He heard talking from downstairs, so he transformed back and headed down. Jaimie was on the phone, talking to Jazz by the sounds of it.

"Yeah mommy, I'm fine. Bwian helped me! Yeah, he got rid of the clown. Oh here he is, do you wanna talk to him? Ok. Love you too mommy, bye." Jaimie passed the phone to him and he sat down on the steps with her beside him.

"Hi Aunt Jazz. Yes, I'm fine, just a little scrape is all. Oh, and you might want to check the town for the kids, maybe the circus tent or something. It _was_ a clown ghost, after all. Alright, I'll see you in the morning. Actually, I plan to sleep right now, but...if gram or gramps asks, tell them I fought it off with one of the ecto-guns gramps smuggled in his suitcase. Yes, he did. I took the luggage up, remember? Alright, you go kill him. Bye." Brian yawned as he turned the phone off. Jaimie also yawned, and leaned up against him.

"I'm proud of you squirt. The clown was getting power from fear, and with you not being afraid helped me a lot. You did good." she just barely had the energy to nod. She was about to fall asleep, when Brian took her up to her room and tucked her in.

"Love you Bwian." she yawned, and the cute five year old burrowed into her covers.

Kissing her on the forehead, he said, "I love you too, squirt." and went off to his own room.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The next morning arrived all too soon. The kids had all been found, and were back with their families. They had, indeed, been found in the circus tent. The circus owners were denying any involvement, saying that no one had been in the tent that night. Maddie and Jack had told Brian repeatedly that they were proud of him, though Jack got quite a yelling at for smuggling ecto-guns to the vacation. They were just sitting down to lunch when Jack himself brought up a very taboo subject.

"So, we have one day of vacation left. Who wants to go to the circus?"

Jazz, Maddie, Brian, and Jaimie all exchanged glances.

"You want to go swimming, squirt?" Brian asked, getting up quickly.

"Sure." Jaimie agreed instantly.

"I think I'll join you guys." Jazz told them.

"I've been meaning to get some swimming in." Maddie added, and they all left the room, leaving Jack with his pile of finished pancakes and an empty room.

"Was it something I said?" Jack asked that empty room. However, as usual, he got no response.


	7. Deja Vu With a Twist

**A/N: sry it's been so long people. one of my best friends got home from her vacation around Europe (we had loads to catch up on), i've been getting ready for school (starts on the fourth for me), and i got caught up in a harry potter story i was reading. plus, with school starting and everything, i won't have the chance to type a chapter all day. so updates are going to be a bit spaced out from now on. sorry.**

**thanks for ur reviews guys! and to Amber-Phantom - sorry, what you were talking about isn't going to happen anytime soon. Probably the next summer (not talking about reality, in the story), as there are some things I have to have happen beforehand. don't forget to review!**

Chapter 7 - Deja Vu with a Twist

Lea immediately cuffed Brian on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked, as they lounged around the mall.

"I told you to call us if anything happened!" Lea told him, and he smiled sheepishly.

"Nothing much really happened." Brian tried to get out of it.

"Dude, all the kids in the town were kidnapped, you fought an insane clown, your Aunt found out about your secret, AND Jaimie acted mature! I think that counts for _something_!" Leo exclaimed, taking a bite out of his Rolo ice cream.

It was the day after his vacation, and the mall was one of the best air-conditioned buildings in Amity. So, naturally, the vast majority of the teenage population was here, and ice cream parlours all over were making a killing.

Brian was about to respond, but his ghost sense went off. The others sighed with him, and Brian ducked under the table. The large ghost soon scared off any possible witnesses, so Brian transformed, as did Lea, and they emerged to see their target.

He had pale blue skin, and flaming green hair. The ghost was wearing high-tech armour by the looks of it, and had a very broad chest. His head almost resembled a triangle in the way it got smaller after leaving it's neck. He appeared to be looking for something.

"What do you say we take him by surprise?" Lea whispered, sending shivers down his spine, which he associated with his ghost sense. He nodded and held up three fingers for the countdown.

_Three..._

_Two..._

**Crash!**

"You can't hide from me, Ghost Boy! For I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Ghost Hunter! Collector of All Unique and Rare! You'll spend the rest of your life in a cage, for all to view and admire!" the ghost bellowed from above them, where he had thrown the table away.

"Do all ghosts make strange and really long titles for themselves?" Brian asked Lea dryly, and she simply shrugged.

Skulker then withdrew a miniature cage, which appeared to have many ghosts struggling to be free. Skulker made to put Brian in the cage, but he flew up to dodge, while Lea jumped on her hover board to join him. The ghost raised an eyebrow at this.

"Oh, so the Ghost Boy has a little girlfriend too? So much like-" but he was cut off at Brian and Lea's furious shouts of denial.

Skulker threw an ectoblast at him, and Brian dodged. The boy was plainly expecting something easy, due to all the simplistic animal ghosts that seemed to crowd around Amity. Fool.

The girl actually got a shot on him - but she was soon disposed of. She had no value, and was just an annoyance.

Brian's eyes widened as he saw Lea get thrown into a nearby store's neon sign. It sparked, flickered and went out, while Lea fell into a display of little knick-knacks, most of which were unfortunately sharp. She didn't get up.

When he saw Leo rushing to her, Brian turned back to Skulker, who was coming at him quick. Moving out of the way at the last minute, Brian grabbed him and used his momentum against him. Skulker found himself being thrown into the cutlery shop, but simply went intangible and came back up. He threw an ectoblast which got Brian in the gut, leaving behind a burning sensation.

The next thing he knew he was trying to defend himself against Skulker's ecto-punches, but his shields shattered after only a few. Brian was just trying to hold out until his healing powers took effect and this stupid burn went away.

But for some reason, they didn't work. Brian found himself thrown into their table at the food court, but luckily their bags cushioned his fall...somewhat. Brian knew why as Leo's bag spilt open, revealing several pointy techno-things. _Very_ pointy techno-things.

"Man, Brian, are you alright?" Leo asked him, crouching down beside his friend.

"Gee, let me think...no! Lea's hurt, I'm hurt, my healing powers aren't working, and I got a crazy, really powerful ghost on my hands!" Brian groaned as he got up from the wreckage that was once their table. Skulker landed several meters away and started walking towards them victoriously.

"You don't have to fight me, you know. You could just come quietl-eyyyyyyyyy!" Skulker slipped on Leo's dropped ice cream, and fell face first into the table wreckage.

Something caught his eye. It was one of those human communication devices, but it seemed to be upgraded, more advanced. Just as he picked it up and was about to add it to his armour, thinking that you can never have too many upgrades, a flash of deja vu made him hesitate. But only for a second. It soon left, and he added the phone to his armour.

Immediately text messages flashed across his visor.

_"From: Super Techno-Geek Magazines ltd. Visit our Website! From: The Phys-Ed Hater's Club. Down with Physical Activity! From: Harold Smith. Dude, any updates? I have ten bucks to spend. _What is this? It's taking up so much memory...stupid human technology! It won't come off!" Skulker was now frantically pulling at the cell phone, but ran away in a frenzy as Brian and Leo watched, stunned.

"He took my cell phone!" Leo whined.

"Which is perfect!" Brian declared, and then explained when Leo just stared at him, "You said that your cell phone can be controlled by your laptop, right? And it has a connection to the Internet?"

Leo realised what he was saying. "And there are a lot of pages on the Internet that have viruses, or pages that take a long time to load! Let's get to my house first though - mom's at work, and Lea could use some bandages."

Brian flew over to where Lea lay. Leo had gotten her out of the sharp items, but she had several small cuts across her face, and a burn on her shoulder from where Skulker's ecto blast hit her. Seeing it made Brian remember his own injury, which was only just starting to heal now. But it as taking much longer than normal.

He and Leo arranged so that Brian would carry Lea home, and he would meet them there. The trio-temporarily-made-duo could hear voices and the sounds of TV crews outside the mall, so Brian scooped Lea up in his arms (bridal style, of course) and flew through the roof while Leo sneaked out the back way.

Unfortunately, Brian forgot to make them invisible. Cameras flashed and reporters started shouting so many questions it was impossible to make out a single one. Not that Brian was even trying, though. He just turned them invisible, much to the dismay of the reporters, and flew off in the direction of Lea's house.

Mid-flight, Lea started to stir. Brian looked down to see her tiredly open her eyes and yawn. But she froze mid-yawn, after seeing her position. Of course, in her mind it was the fact she was in Brian's arms, but Brian thought it was because she was currently about a kilometer high in the air.

"Well look who's up...it's miss Since-I-got-thrown-into-a-sign-I-get-to-take-a-nice-little-nap." Brian smiled to let her know he was just joking. She scowled and lightly smacked him on the shoulder.

"Hey, watch it, I wouldn't want to drop you would I?" Brian teased.

"You wouldn't dare!" she yelped and wrapped her right arm around his neck so that she could hang on even if he decided to play some more.

"All right! I surrender!" Brian couldn't understand why he was happy to be in this position with Lea. She was hurt, why would he be happy?

"Good. Now, what happened with Skulker?"

Brian explained what had transpired at the mall, while they landed in Lea's house and waited on Leo. He was on foot, after all. He came in just as Brian was about to ask about Lea's (who was laying on the couch) shoulder when Leo beat him to it. He was already hovering over her.

"I'm telling you Leo, _I'm fine_. Why is that so hard for you to believe?" Lea said exasperatedly.

"I'm just worried about you sis. Listen, I'll go get us a snack, and stop hovering for five minutes. And I know that's what you were thinking!" Leo teased, and went off to the kitchen. The moment he left, Brian turned to Lea.

"Why'd you lie to him?" he asked her, quite bluntly. After all, he was the master of understatements.

Lea looked stunned for a moment, but then realisation dawned in her eyes. He got hit by ectoblasts on a daily basis, and knew that they're burns were no walk in the park. Luckily he didn't have to endure it for long, because his healing powers take effect. But she had no such luck.

"He worries about me enough as it is. Why give him more to worry about? If he knew I _wasn't_ fine, I have no doubt that he'd personally make sure I was on bed rest until the burn was gone. Leo...it's nice that he cares enough about me to do it, but there is such a thing as taking it too far. That's one thing Leo doesn't seem to understand." Lea explained, a pleading quality in her eyes.

Before Brian could respond, Leo shouted out from the kitchen, "Guys, turn on the news right now! This is hilarious!"

Shrugging, Brian picked up the remote and turned on the large screen TV. Immediately the news anchor and a picture on the top right hand side appeared on the screen. The picture was of Brian leaving the mall with Lea in his arms.

"...girls of Amity Park will be disappointed. PhasoBill was, after all, voted by Teen Ghost Magazine as the most good-looking ghost to be in Amity Park for nine years. (Leo [who had come back in laughed uproariously as Brian's face, already a deep crimson, got even darker) But it would seem that he's already taken ladies! The Yellow Huntress, pictured here, was injured during a fight today, seems to be under the _personal_ care of PhasoBill himself! (Lea turned an eerily similar shade of red to Brian) This just seems to prove that, since the Yellow Huntress herself is good, that PhasoBill is also not-evil. We'll have more on this situation as it continues."

Soon after that, Brian left because he didn't want his grandparents to get suspicious. Leo started making a program for Skulker, a.k.a. his cell phone. He instructed it to go to several web pages known to hold viruses, and one page that would take him approximately 30 seconds to load. He could send it at any time, giving them the advantage.

The next day, the three friends met up in the park, hoping to attract Skulker so they could get rid of him. They weren't disappointed. The bulky ghost flew up to them, starting off his assault immediately with a wide spread ecto-blast. Expecting it, Leo crouched behind a tree with his laptop, while the other two changed (by now, once again, everyone had run out of the park screaming. Convenient, isn't it?) and flew out of it's reach.

The battle began, but not without a healthy amount of steadily-improving-witty-banter from Brian. At one point during the battle, Skulker halted for a second, then sneezed. Unfortunately, Brian and Lea were too busy stifling giggles and laughs to take advantage of the situation. Their adversary quickly recovered, and shot at them again.

It continued in this way for quite a while, until Lea finally succeeded in capturing him. It went like this: Brian kept Skulker distracted, while Lea searched for a Pen. Just as she looked up, their ghostly grievance was about to land a hard blow to Brian, when he froze. Then, his armour crashed (at least, that's what Leo told them), and a tiny green blob flew out of it. Lea had no trouble incarcerating it inside the Pen. Of course, that wasn't without Brian shouting something about 'See how you like it!'.

Anyway, the sun was setting as the three walked back home. Leo was still pouting - and after they had spent the rest of the day at the ice cream parlour!

"Come on Leo, you can get another! It's not the end of the world!" Lea flung her arms open wide to symbolize as she walked backward, facing her brother.

"But it won't be the same." Leo mumbled, arms crossed.

"Exactly. Why don't you take it as a challenge to make an even better cell phone? Maybe it could double as a stereo or something." Brian tried to cheer his best friend up. After all, they had been friends since birth, practically. Their parents would always be together, you see. Therefore, they were always together.

Leo seemed to be cheered up marginally. Of course, according to Lea (though she said it in her own goofy way), who contacted Brian the next day, he had felt much better after tinkering with some new thing in his room for a bit. Brian was at home now, and the last thought before he went to sleep-

_I've got the best friends in both the worlds_.


End file.
